I am an emeritus professor from Cornell University and was a Commissioned Lay Preacher in the Presbyterian Church (USA). For many years I have followed the Daily Lectionary as printed in the Mission Yearbook of my church. For each day of a two-year cycle, the lectionary lists four psalms and three other scriptural passages--usually one from the Old Testament and two from the New Testament. My practice is to copy down a verse or two from one of the psalms and from each of the other three passages. After I have written out all four selections, I reflect upon them, rearrange their order, and incorporate them into a meditation. Sometimes I retain much of the original wording; sometimes all that remains of a selection is an idea that was stimulated when I read the original words. All selections are from the New Revised Standard Version of the Bible. For the Daily Lectionary, see the link below.

To Bear Fruit for God--April 1, 2019


You are great, O God, and greatly to be praised;
truly your greatness is unsearchable. 
How pathetic we are when we try to worship
not you, but the gods we have made.
How can we make a difference with our lives--
what are we among so many people?
Yet, when we belong to you, and to the one
whom you have raised from the dead,
you use us, through him, to bear much fruit.

Lectionary Readings
Ps. 119:73-80; 145; 121; 6
Jer. 16:1-21
Rom. 7:1-12
John 6:1-15

Selected Verses
Ps. 145:3
 Great is the LORD, and greatly to be praised;
          his greatness is unsearchable.

Jer. 16:20
 Can mortals make for themselves gods?
          Such are no gods!

Rom. 7:4
In the same way, my friends, you have died to the law through the body of Christ, so that you may belong to another, to him who has been raised from the dead in order that we may bear fruit for God. 

John 6:8-9
One of his disciples, Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother, said to him, "There is a boy here who has five barley loaves and two fish.  But what are they among so many people?" 

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